How Twitter Helped Me Meet Seth Godin

Yesterday I had the incredible opportunity to hear Seth Godin speak at the Small Business Summit in New York City, and received a copy of his newest book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?. The fact that I knew about this event, and had the opportunity to attend, was all due to Twitter.

You see, I was looking at updates from folks I follow on Twitter, and saw someone post that someone SHE followed was offering free tickets to this event (which normally cost $200.) After a quick check of the date to be sure I would be in town, I jumped on the chance and was able to score a ticket for free. (Thank you Jonathan Fields…I will forever owe you one! You should all check out his book too: Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love)

Now I have some thoughts I want to share with you on this (and I will have more to share after I finish reading Seth’s book Linchpin, which he autographed for me.)

First, it’s important to read your Twitter stream, if you participate on that tool. It’s also essential that you’re following the right people, if you want to maximize the value of this tool. I follow thought leaders in the direct sales and social media industries, as well as people who are interested in similar topics to my interests. So when the opportunity came up, I saw it. But the opportunity came because I was following the right people.

DO THIS:

Think about who the thought leaders are in your field, both direct selling as well as the product line you sell. If they are on Twitter, find them using the People search and follow them.

Find out who else is interested in these topics, and follow them. Go to http://www.twellow.com and search the bios of people. Chances are the people that are passionate about these topics will include them in their Twitter bios. Find them and follow them. You can also use a Twitter search feature to find people talking about topics you are interested in. (This can be done right through the Twitter search page, or through a search column in your Twitter client of choice…see below).

Set up lists in Twitter for the people you follow. You may want a list for thought leaders, and another for those folks you found on Twellow and through your Twitter searches. Put these lists in special columns within your Twitter client (I favor HootSuite, but TweetDeck and Seesmic are also options) and make a point of looking at those columns daily. Also search Listorious for Twitter lists to follow that others have made.

Twitter has been tremendous for my own personal business. I got my first speaking gig through Twitter, pitched an article that was published in an industry publication through Twitter, and have met a tremendous amount of incredible people that I learn from on a daily basis. I personally use it every day.

By paying attention (even just a little bit) you will find opportunities that weren’t available to you before. Take advantage!

What are you going to do TODAY to take advantage of Twitter? Share it in the comments!

Related

That is the benefit of networking. Doors open for you. And it was great that you took the opportunity to walk through it. We have to keep an eye out for those opportunities that arrive so that we don’t miss them and networking helps improve the amount of opportunities that we get.